The Navy (1-2) volleyball team opens its home season this weekend when it plays host to VCU (1-2), Michigan State (3-0) and UAlbany (0-3) during the 11th edition of the Kristen Dickmann Invitational Thursday through Saturday in the Wesley A. Brown Field House.  Admission is free for all six matches.

Tournament Schedule
Thursday, Sept. 1
7 p.m. - VCU at Navy - ESPN+ - Live Stats
Friday, Sept. 2
11 a.m. - UAlbany vs. Michigan - Live Stats
3:30 p.m. - VCU vs. UAlbany - Live Stats
7 p.m. - Michigan State at Navy - ESPN+ - Live Stats
Saturday, Sept. 3
Noon - Michigan State vs. VCU - Live Stats
3:30 p.m. - UAlbany at Navy - Live Stats

Vehicle Access for Fans
Fans without a Department of Defense ID card must park outside of the USNA and either walk through the game one visitors center or ride the shuttle bus.  Shuttle bus service begins one hour prior to the start of the first match of the day.  It will depart from and return to the blue (west) parking lot at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium (550 Taylor Ave., Annapolis, MD, 21401) on Thursday and Friday and from the Navy Health Clinic (695 Kinkaid Rd., Annapolis, MD, 21402) on Saturday.

Last Week
•     The Mids opened the year by playing three matches in nearby College Park at the Maryland Invitational.  The Mids lost in four sets to Florida Gulf Coast and in three sets to Maryland before they defeated Rhode Island in four sets.
•     The Lewellyn sisters combined for 76 of Navy's 128 kills over the course of the three matches.
•     Jamie totaled 39 kills to lead all players, and also paced the Mids with five aces and 20 digs.
•     Jordan registered 37 kills, 19 digs and seven blocks.

Next Week
•     Navy closes its brief three-week slate of tournaments by playing three matches at the Quest for the Crown in Norfolk, Va.  The Mids open the weekend by facing tournament-host Old Dominion Thursday, face East Carolina Friday and play Notre Dame Saturday.

VCU Information
•     Navy and VCU are meeting for the first time in nearly 30 years.  The Rams won the most recent match, a 3-1 decision contested in a 1996 tournament at Penn.
•     VCU has won each of the four matches played since Navy became a Division I program in 1991 and holds an 8-3 edge in the all-time series that began in 1979.
•     Thursday's match will be the first in the series to be played in Annapolis since 1991.  The Rams hold a 2-1 edge in matches contested on The Yard.
•     VCU compiled an overall record of 18-12 a year ago and placed second in the Atlantic 10 Conference with a 13-3 record.  The second-seeded Rams were upset by sixth-seeded Fordham in the semifinal round of the conference tournament.
•     The Rams were predicted to place second in the 10-team conference this season.
•     The Rams opened this year by playing three matches in their own tournament.  VCU lost in three sets to High Point, defeated Liberty in four sets and lost to Elon in four sets.

Michigan State Information
•     Friday's match will be the first between Navy and Michigan State.
•     Friday's match marks the fifth time a team has played at Navy as a Big Ten Conference member.  Minnesota played in Annapolis in 1998 and 2009, Maryland made the short drive to The Yard in 2015 and Michigan played in the Wesley A. Brown Field House last fall.  The Terrapins also visited Navy four times (1977, '79, '80, 2009) as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
•     This is the fourth-straight fall season in which the Mids are facing a team from the Big Ten: 2018 - at Penn State, at Rutgers, vs. Michigan (NCAA Tournament); 2019 - at Michigan; 2021 - Michigan; 2022 - at Maryland, Michigan State.
•     Michigan State posted an 11-18 record last year and finished in a tie for 11th place in the Big Ten Conference with a 4-16 record.  The Spartans compiled a 1-9 record a year ago against Big Ten teams that held a national ranking at the time of the match.
•     The Spartans placed 11th in this year's 14-team conference preseason poll.
•     The Spartans opened the 2022 campaign by playing host to their own tournament.  Michigan State won all three of its matches on the weekend, defeating Louisiana in five sets, Eastern Michigan in five sets and Fairfield in three sets.

UAlbany Information
•     The lone prior match in the Navy-UAlbany series took place 20 seasons ago in Annapolis.  The Great Danes won that 2002 match which was played as part of the Trident Classic.
•     UAlbany finished last season with an overall record of 14-15 and placed second in the America East Conference with an 8-4 record.  The Great Danes lost in five sets to top-seeded UMBC in the championship match of the conference tournament.
•     UAlbany was predicted to place second in the six-team conference this season.
•     The Great Danes began this season by competing in a tournament at James Madison.  UAlbany lost a trio of four-set matches to Kent State, James Madison and Robert Morris on the trip. 

Kristen Dickmann Invitational
•    This is the 11th year in which Navy's fall tournament is being played in honor of Kristen Dickmann.  A staple of Navy's schedule since the beginning of the program, the tournament was named the Kristen Dickmann Invitational starting with the 2010 campaign.
•    The Kennett Square, Pa., native attended Unionville High School where she earned four letters as a member of the school's volleyball team and served as the captain of the team during her senior season.  In addition to garnering all-league accolades in the sport as a junior, Dickmann also earned all-league, all-area and all-state laurels as a senior.
•    Kristen was one of only two freshmen to make the final roster for the volleyball team in 2007.  She appeared in 10 matches as a defensive specialist, but saw her role grow larger during the spring season to where she was considered the front runner to be Navy's starting libero that fall.
•    One of the team's highlights from that spring season was a match against Juniata –– coached by future Navy head coach Larry Bock –– which featured Kristen playing against her sister, Cassie, then a junior for Juniata.  After Kristen provided Navy with the pre-match player-by-player scouting report on Juniata, Cassie was overheard imploring her teammates during the match to, "Stop tipping to my sister!  She knows where you are hitting!"
•    A lover of math who selected physics as her major, her career goal was to fly the C-2 Greyhound plane which is used to delivery mail for the Navy because, as she put it, "Everyone likes to get mail."  The only military criticisms of Kristen during her freshman year were for "smiling too much."
•    Kristen unexpectedly passed away in her dorm room in Bancroft Hall in May 2008, three weeks after turning 19 years old.

Navy Players to Wear Dickmann's No. 6
2012-15    Star Steele
2016-19    Paige Miles
2020-pres.    Averi Miller